March to Infinity: Thor Ragnarök: It's the end of the world and I feel fine

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 So here we are, the last MCU movie that I have to cover before I see Avengers Infinity War. I really should have done this sooner but you know, life, ironically when I'm talking about a movie named after the end of the world. In terms of chronological release; right after a less then exceptional homecoming party for everyones favorite neighborhood Spider-Man we saw what is undoubtably the best Thor movie in the franchise. Also the closest we'll ever get to an adaptation of Planet Hulk though with a much more lighthearted execution and set up. Not to say that Planet Hulk isn't a good story (from what little I've heard it really is) but with what the MCU has set up they did a great job with what they had.

 So as we open on Thor in a cage with a skeleton he exposits to his imaginary friend that after Age of Ultron he decided to travel the realms to learn more about the infinity stones before Thanos brings his big purple ass to our door step. But apparently that was unsuccessful so he also got the idea that while he was out and about he might as well stop Ragnarök. Thus he traveled to the realm of Surtur to kill him and stop the whole shebang at the source. During Surtur's whole 'evil plan monologue" he says that to destroy Asgard all he has to do is place his crown into the Eternal Flame in Odin's vault and BAM! Now normally Odin would have that on lockdown but according to Surtur Odin's not in Asgard anymore.

 After kicking Surtur's ass, retrieving his crown and nearly becoming Smaug's chew toy Thor finally makes it back to Asgard. No thanks to Heimdal's non union replacement Skurge (played by Karl Urban) who only got the job because Heimdal fled Asgard before he could be sentenced by "Odin" for betraying the throne and was too busy showing off his Midgard swag to some ladyfriend company of his. Thor, finally catching up with everyone who saw the end of Dark World exposes Loki and demands to know where he stashed the All Father, which turned out to be in an old folks home! Or at least that was where Loki left him last. Thankfully someone knows where Odin is, Dr Stephen Strange, sorcerer supreme, keeper of the time stone and newest smug asshole of the MCU.

 After some fun at the twos expense Dr Strange teleports the two to Norway where Odin is. They arrive just in time to hear his last words to the two before he dies, warning them that with his death, his daughter Hela (played by Cate Blanchett) will be freed from her imprisonment and that once she makes it to Asgard she will be unstoppable and conquer not just the nine realms but all of existence. Literally after Odin died Big Sis is loose and is not playing around, as demonstrated when she crushes Mjolnir literally single handedly!!!! Of course that was just an appetizer, once Loki opens the Bifrost Bridge to try and escape her, she serves the main course by knocking the two out of the beam leaving the two flying though the depths of space. Then for her next trick she goes to kill the Warriors three and most of Asgard warriors, save for Skurge who rather prefers keeping his head on his shoulders instead of bleeding on the floor.

 Hela's mood doesn't improve once she's seen what Odin's done with the palace. Back in her time she helped him conquer the nine realms, all but securing his rule. Then once she decided that nine realms were small potatoes Odin then decided to play the virtuous uniter and tried to banish her. Once Hela was out of the way he decided to cover Asgards bloody past with lies of unity and diplomacy (sound familiar?) Once that was all cleared up Hela found the eternal flame and used it to resurrect her army of Ancient Asgardian warriors and her giant wolf Fenris. 

 At first she planed to then immediately get on with conquering but Heimdal stole the sword to the Bifrost and has gone into hiding with the resistance so now she has to deal with that. Thor eventually lands on a junk planet called Sakaar when he's captured by Scrapper 142 (played by Tessa Thompson) and sold as a "prisoner with a job" to the planets ruler, an eccentric nut job called the Grandmaster (played um by um um Jeff Jeff Goldblum). Thor isn't up for Grandblum's bullshit so now he has to compete in the Contest of Champions and defeat the Grandmaster's champion so he can earn his freedom and return to Asgard to stop Hela. No thanks to Loki who somehow landed on Sakaar a few weeks ago before Thor showed up which was only just a few minutes ago!

 Oh and he's also got into the Grandmaster's good graces. But does he do anything to help Thor, nope he's too busy humoring someone who's even more nuts then he is, thanks bro you're a big help! But Thor's not alone, he's got a sentient pile of rocks named Korg and a bug with knives for hands named Meek, so he's all good. Especially once he makes it to the Champion himself, The Hulk! But he's been on Sakaar for two years as the Hulk so Bruce isn't in control and has been in permanent smash mode.

 Waking up after the Jörmungandr sized beatdown he received from the Hulk Thor plans his escape via the discovered Quinjet and a vision from Heimdal. Though he knows that alone he'll get his ass kicked again so he asks Hulk and 142 for help but they're not interested for various reasons. Hulk's a famous gladiator and his strength is loved on Sakaar as opposed to being hunted and feared on earth. As for 142, she was originally a Valkyrie, the only remaining Valkyrie after all of her comrades were slaughtered by Hela when they were sent by Odin to stop her. Thor's escape plans are slightly derailed when Hulk unintentionally destroyed the Quintet but a recording of Natashia's last transmission finally reverts Hulk back to Bruce Banner.

 That's when Valkyrie offers her assistance and gives them Loki to prove her sincerity. They then come up with a plan, to get back to Asgard they have to reach the largest wormhole on Sakaar called; I kid you not, the devil's anus. But to survive the trip they need the right ship and who has all of the Grandmaster's access codes, including all of his personal ships? Loki! After freeing Korg, Meek and the rest of the gladiators the revolution is on! Thor and his group eventually make it though the devil's anus and confront Hela.

 This time however they have a plan, while Thor, Valkyrie, and the rest get the Asgardians to safety on Korg and Meek's transport ship, Loki will sneak into the place, revive Surtur with the eternal flame, begin Ragnarök and get away while Hela stays behind trying to kill him thus two birds with one stone. Despite some hiccups and Thor losing his right eye the plan works and the Asgardians get away while Hela and Asgard are destroyed by Surtur, thus saving the day. Now that Thor is the new king he plans to move the Asgardians to earth. At least that was the plan but our movie ends with his ship being intercepted by Thanos. Why is he there, well Loki decided to bring along a souvenir from the vault, the Tesseract AKA the Space Stone.

 So that was Thor Ragnarök, is it really a surprise that this is the best solo Thor movie? Where as the first two tried to take themselves too seriously (especially Dark World and Malekith) Ragnarök on the other hand embraces the ridiculousness of its source material and gets rid of most of the parts of MCU Thor's mythos that really just didn't work. The Warriors three, not relevant past the first movie, Asgard, cool looking place but not much else outside of the aesthetic, Jane Foster, apparently she and Thor broke up off screen. (Translation apparently Natalie Portman's contract wasn't renewed or something, though speaking of off screen where did Lady Sif go?) Now if you're doing your job right when you take away something you have to replace it with something else.

 Well, taking out all the pointless Thor mythos and replacing it with a loose adaptation of Planet Hulk was definitely the right choice on Director Taika Waititi's part, not only giving Thor a unique setting to do his thing and bounce off of people but also giving not only resolution for Hulk after Age of Ultron giving us more things for him to do outside of just smash! Him being stuck in Hulk mode for two years really would have a direct effect on Hulk and Bruce's relationship and we see that happen. Hulk's been in the driver's seat so the usual tactics for calming him down don't work. Hell he doesn't really seem that angry, just more like a five year old with the power of a Tzar Bomba in both of his fists. He sounds dangerous yeah but you could placate him just as easily as you could piss him off.

 Hela is also a decent villain for this type of story. (On top of being the first female main MCU movie villain.) Watching this movie again Hela seemed more like what I would think a rebooted Rita Repulsa would be like then what the 2017 Power Rangers movie did, she's funny but it's more derided from her conquest and slaughter of her enemies which really shows what Asgard was like back when she was a necessity for Odin's plans. She was understandably, insanely powerful, able to decimate armies of highly trained god solders and destroy Mjolnir with little effort. Her motivations are also understandable, she was Odin's second in command, helping him to conquer the nine realms, slaughtering countless people who opposed him to only just get rejected because he finally found his conscience and realized "oh dear, maybe slaughtering everyone who opposes me to establish my new kingdom isn't exactly the best way to go about this".

 But she never came to that realization that Odin did, instead she's just that old blood thirsty war machine, never realizing that Asgard would not exist without its people, to her she sees only either subjects or victims. Which leads me to the big underlying theme of this movie, a biting commentary on the practice of colonialism and the legacy of nations built on them. Hela and her reaction to the fresco in the palace perfectly exemplify the inherent flaws in conquers and militarization, that underneath the golden idols and talks of peace there's just blood, death and many many corpses used as the foundation for this power-hungy despot's utopia. She is the dark past of Asgard that Odin tried desperately to bury and forget. While Hela is more direct with this interpretation we now look at Sakaar and the Grandmaster.

 The Grandmaster may have established and built Sakaar without this bloodshed but he also established the policies that allow him and those he finds favor with to stay at the top while pacifying the populace with gladiatorial combat. While he's not as interested in conquest as Hela he's not doing much to improve the lives of the people of Sakaar, unless its those in his court. He instead choses to use his power to indulge and drown himself in riches and booze while trying to present it as a benevolent rule. Either way when you look at Sakaar you can only say one thing about the Gandmaster's rule.

 Sakaar is basically Ancient Rome with spaceships, giant green men, "prisoners with jobs" and tentacle Hentai. So while one is a bloodthirsty dictator and the other is an eccentric, hedonistic weirdo with too much time on his hands we then come to Thor and his nomadic Asgardians. Both Hela and The Grandmaster exemplify the worst possible outcomes of colonialism where as Thor at the end of the movie comes to the same realization that Odin did all those years ago, that Asgard is never the realm but its people. So by letting Ragnarök occur taking both Asgard and Hela with it he and his new Asgard can create their own future, not forgetting the past but no longer letting it define them.

 Whatever path he and his new Asgard decides to go with the message is clear, they knows the sins of Asgard's past and will endeavor to create a new legacy for Asgard, just not through the path of the conquerer. Well at last that probably was the plan until Thanos came knocking on his door and will most likely kill everyone on that ship to get his big purple hands on that stone. Which finally brings us to the main event, the ten year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The March to Infinity is over, Thanos has finally gotten off of his chair and the war has begun. I just want to thank everyone who has been following me on this retrospective and supported me in this whole endeavor and those who will support me in the future. So next time is the main event, Thanos the movie guest starring the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Thor Ragnarök is owned by Marvel Studios, produced by Keven Feige based off the comic by Larry Leiber, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson,  Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory.

Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.

Dragon ball Z abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Jurassic Park is owned by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Studios based off the book written by Michael Crichton
Star Wars The Last Jedi is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Company and Lucas films based off the characters created by George Lucas.

Movie Review: Back To the Future Part 3: No George, I am your Son!

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

Marty tries to get George and Loraine together during lunch and in the process finds that George has aspirations of writing sci-fi and proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when George has the exact same words of doubt and hesitation towards his writing as Marty does about his music. George points out that maybe Biff would be a better match as he points out Biff accosting her which of course sets Marty off to stop it, the two are about to fight but when Biff sees Strickland he backs off. George finally breaks down after Marty's stalked him enough and tells him that he's not going to the dance and that there's nothing on this planet that's going to get him to change his mind. So after some shenanigans involving the Hazmat suit, Van Halen and some good old fashioned breaking and entering George is all on board for asking Marty's help in getting Loraine to go to the dance with him.

 Though Marty suggests leaving out the part that George has to take her or else Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan will melt his brains if he doesn't take her. Girls don't typically go for guys that say stuff like that.

So George tries but is once again stopped by Biff. Marty trips Biff which gets his attention. After Marty gets him with the old "Look over there" trick and decks him Marty ends up getting chased around the town square by Biff and his goons in their car while Marty leads them on a makeshift Skateboard. The chase ends not only with him unfortunately stoking the flames of love for Loraine for him but also causes Biff to crash his car into a Manure truck.

 Back at the lab Doc is going over the footage of the Test and discovers the part where Future Doc notices the Libyans. But the footage cuts off before he can see what happened, Marty tries to tell him what happened but Doc is insistent that he not learn what happens since nobody should have access to future knowledge or know too much about their own destiny and that if one knows too much about their own future they could endanger their own existence just as Marty has.

Besides future knowledge can lead anyone to disaster whether their intentions are good or not if it's mishandled. Especially if put in the hands of a complete and utter tool written by people who wouldn't know the first thing about competent storytelling even if they got step by step instructions from Joseph Campbell himself much-less time travel.

Anyway Doc shows Marty the plan for the 12th. He'll set up some electrical cable at the top of the clock tower and when the lighting strikes the current will run down the cable which is run between two street lamp posts. Before hand Marty will already be driving down the street at 88 MPH and when the lightning hits Marty will already be driving underneath the cables, the lightning will run down the cable and down a metal hook which is connected directly into the Flux Capacitor and send him back to 1985. After the less then confidence building demonstration Doc asks how Marty's progressing with setting up his parents. He gets his answer when Loraine shows up and asks Marty to the Enchantment under the sea dance, that answer being "a work in progress".

 Marty then runs a plan by George later telling him how he'll help him sweep Loraine off her feet. She wants a man who will stand up for himself and his girl so they just have to make him look like well anyone other then George McFly. The plan goes as thus; Marty will stage a rape, George will show up and knock his ass out and then she'll be putty in his hands and by god does this make me feel unclean as I type this. Though probably not as much as Marty does thinking this plan I mean this is his FUTURE MOTHER for gods sake! George is scared as hell but Marty tells him to have confidence and that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything.

 The night of the Dance/Lightning storm Doc is finishing setting up the experiment and is nervous about the weather and if the lighting really will happen. Marty tries to tell Doc about the Future but he again shuts him down saying that what's going to happen will happen and that future knowledge could backfire no matter the intention. So Marty decides to write Doc a letter detailing his death and warns him to take whatever precautions to prevent it with the words "Do not open until 1985" on the outside of the envelope and he slips the letter into Doc's jacket pocket once he's distracted. Later at the Dance the Band Marvin Berry and the Star-lighters are playing, George is there as the wall flower and Marty and Loraine are pulling up to the big shindig.

 Marty asks if they can park and Loraine is all for it. Like she's never parked before, so yeah finding out your teenage mother slept around in high school and used to drink like a camel and smoke like a chimney on top of that, this has not been a good week for Marty McFly. Loraine has had enough of Marty's pussy footing around and starts making out with him.

 But the Big Z is going to hold out on that since Loraine stops half way saying that it feels wrong, like when she kisses him, it's like kissing her brother. Before things can calm down Marty hears knocking on the car door and opens it thinking it's George but nope it's Biff and his goons piss ass drunk and looking for payback. Biff spots Loraine in the car and tells his goons to take care of Marty while he has his way with Loraine. The three lock Marty in a near by trunk, which happens to belong to the band. They chase the goons off and when Marvin asks for the keys from a band-mate Marty unfortunately says that the keys are in the trunk with him.

 George heads down to the car and on queue sees the car shaking and opens it expecting to see Marty but finds Biff trying to rape Loraine. Biff tells George to walk away but George tells him to leave her alone. Biff retaliates by grabbing George's arm and tries to break it. Meanwhile Marty gets free but Marvin slices his hand in the process of trying to pick the lock of the trunk. Loraine tries to stop Biff but is knocked down; as Biff laughs George focuses all of his anger, all of his courage and knocks Biff on his ass with one punch.

"Wait he didn't blow up from that? Maybe you should just keep it that way, trust me.".

 With Biff out cold George asks if Loraine is okay; she nods and the two walk off together to the gym. However the picture of his siblings still shows them fading away and so Marty runs off to find out what went wrong. Meanwhile Doc finishes setting up the experiment but notices that it's 9:30 and the storm is brewing. Marty heads to the band which can't play since Marvin sliced his hand unless of course they can find a new guitar player. Thanks Plot Convenience Fairy! The band starts to play "Earth Angel" when Marty sees George being pushed aside by some guy who tries to dance with Loraine.

 Marty then collapses in pain as he starts to become transparent and collapses seeing that he's starting to fade in the picture. With his last breath he silently calls out to George who then shoves the bully to the ground and then gives Loraine a deep passionate kiss. With that act their future together is set bringing Marty back before he faded away completely. He then checks the photo and sees that his brother and sister are restored as well, and with that his future is saved.

 Marty tries to leave but can't pass up the chance to show off his guitar skills I mean it's not like he's on a time crunch or anything right? SCHMUCK! So he sticks around to do a cover of "Johnny B Goode" which goes over so well with the crowd Marvin calls his cousin Chuck to take a listen. However Marty goes overboard with a rock-out and leaves the audience more then a bit flummoxed. So he leaves after seeing George and Loraine off with a bit of advice to go easy on their son after he accidentally sets fire to the living room rug.

 Marty barely manages to make it back to the clock tower in time to catch the lightning. He tells Doc that he was impressed by George since he never stood up to Biff before in his life. Doc ignores it and sets the destination time for the exact time Marty left 1985 and gives him the instructions to drive down to the starting line and the punch it when the alarm clock goes off and gives his goodbyes. However he finds the letter Marty left in his coat pocket and tears it up rejecting the responsibility. However Karma strikes Marty can tell him what happens as the cable disconnects from the top of the tower.

 They manage to get the cable up but Marty has only 4 minutes left so he has no choice but to head to the starting position, Marty realizes he has a Time Machine and changes the Time Circuits to 10 minutes before he left 1985 which should give him enough time to get to the mall and warn Doc. Long story short he makes it back to 1985 and runs back to the Lone Pine mall but is too late to save Doc, after this universes Marty goes back to 1955 and the Libyans are knocked out Marty rushes over to Docs body. However Doc was wearing a Bulletproof vest, it turns out he taped the letter back together and found out what happened. Marty asks what happened to all the "I must not know too much about my own future" crap, and Doc figured "what the hell".

 Doc drives Marty back home and tells him he's going ahead 30 years into the future. He gives his goodbyes and drives off. Marty then crashes on his bed and thinks it was all a dream. He wakes up and finds that his house and his family have completely changed, Linda has several boyfriends, Dave is working at an office which requires him to wear a suit, George is a successful sci-fi novelist and Loraine is thin, sober and happy as hell. And thanks to George standing up to Biff, he's now the McFlys personal grease monkey and completely subservient to George.

 On top of that in this timeline Marty also has,

 just as Marty's about to take Jennifer for a ride Doc shows up with he DeLorean in a panic and starts throwing garbage into a device called Mr Fusion saying that Marty and Jen have to come with him since something has to be done about their kids. So our movie ends with Doc turning on the DeLorean's hover conversion and flying off to the future. Now I'll give my thoughts on the movies when I finish reviewing Part 3. That is if I can get them out in time, time I've got all the time in the world I'm reviewing something with a Time Machine. Okay, 20 days outta do it. Look forward to Part 2, eventually.

Back to the Future is owned by Robbert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Stephen Speilberg, Amblin Entertainment  and Universal Studios.
Star Wars is created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox.
Star Trek  is owned by Gene Roddenberry, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Television Distribution.
Final Fantasy 13-2 is owned by Square-Enix, Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinore Kitase.
Saturday Night live is  owned by Lorine Michaels, NBC Studios and Broadway Video.
One-Punch Man is owned by ONE, Viz Media and Shueisha.
The Price is Right is owned by Mark Goodson Television Production, Bob Stewart and FremantleMedia.

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim Taisen Full Trottle Part 3: Heavy Metal 2015

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

 Sorry for the impromptu break folks, helping my little brother move in to college, helping my family with some personal business, working some scheduling problems at my money making job and finding out how to turn this into a money making job blah blah blah anyway time to wrap this pony up and send it to bed. We open the last arc of this movie with Megahex ZZZ returning back to the Big Reddy Star which then becomes gold and shoots out gold versions of the pods from before which release mechanical recreations of Elementary Inves and Low-Class Roidmudes.

 Gaim, Ryugen and Zangetsu-Shin fight off the forces but Megahex shows up again to essentially gloat and give its whole, individuality is meaningless resistance is futile shtick. But back up is on the way in the form of Drive. Gaim and Drive exchange some silly small talk.

Kneel before Space God fool!

 But it's cut short when Megahex notices that both of its prime threats are in the same area so it decides to pull out the big guns and creates a robot version of Kaito.

Um Takatora, Megahex didn't bring back anyone he just created robot versions of them. You do know the difference right? Jeez maybe he took some brain damage from that coma he was in.

 Mecha Kaito then transforms into Baron and says that he knows what he has to do, which is to attack Megahex. Wait what? Um Kaito you do know you're not the real Kaito right? You're a skin job created by Megahex so you shouldn't be able to turn against it like that, and for that matter Megahex, why didn't you destroy Mecha Kaito the minute it turned against you? You made it; you can just as easily unmake it. So why don't you? If not then you just gave the two guys that are trying to destroy you another ally in their efforts to do so, did absorbing that Roidmude give you a virus or something?

 Moving on, Baron after passing the Voight-Kampff test declares that Megahex's Borg collective idea is bullshit so it'll destroy it. So after some dialogue about free will and individuality that's about as subtle as a trumpet blowing in your face the two forces face off. Ryugen and Zangetsu tell Gaim to go with Drive to take out Megahex while they hold off the grunts Megahex summoned. More Mecha Inves and Roidmudes show up but the three Riders get back up from Heart, Brain and Chaser. Why are they helping; well they're not going to let some Anti Spiral Knock-off and his fake Roidmudes wipe out individuality, so Heart and Brain transform into their Evolved forms and aid the Riders.

 As for the Main Riders they're able to hold their own against Megahex, that is until its regeneration kicks in. Belt tells them that they have to damage Megahex faster then it can regenerate, Mai then shows up to help the two Riders exchange powers. So right out of absolutely nowhere Shinnosuke gets the Fruits Basket Shift car and Kouta gets the Drive Lockseed.

Becoming Drive Type Fruits and Gaim Drive Arms.

 I know that I should be harping about how those two came right the hell out of nowhere; so I will. You guys do know that the Shift Cars actually have to be built right, you can't just make one pop right out of thin air. As for the Drive Lockseed Gaim and Wizard's movie established that the creation of a Rider Lockseed requires a Rider's Power Totem to be infused into an unripened Lockseed so where did it come from, did a Shift Car give itself up to become the Fruits Shift Car? Oh, what's that? It's never explained right right, that was stupid of me asking legitimate questions, blugh.

 So the two reengage Megahex and with their synchronized speed are able to outpace its regeneration; managing to destroy it. However ZZZ's core was absorbed by the Wet Willy Star. Krim thinks that now that it has a Roidmudes core it has the same weakness' as a Roidmude and if the two destroy the core Megahex goes with it. So the two take a page from the Nostalgia Critic and drive into space with Tridoron.

I don't know what you're smoking Krim, that's the freaking Delorian! Man, Doc Brown is gonna sue somebody!

 So the two Riders pile in and fly off to destroy Megahex once and for all. However Megahex uses more of the Roidmude data to send a new creature after the two.

MUST GO FASTER, MUST GO FASTER, MUST GO FASTER!

 But even with that visage of pure evil on their tail the two Riders manage to make it inside of the Golden Freddy Star. They manage to get rid of the demon bear by... squirting Juice in its face with Tridoron's drifting. Why didn't the security guard just have some OJ when Gold Freddy showed up, now I'm just wondering what would work on the Puppet, Apple Juice, Grapefruit juice? Eh whatever, the Gold Freddy Star has had enough and just decides to crush the three. Drive and Gaim manage to eject at the last second and destroy the core of Megahex and the Megahex Planet itself with a double Rider Kick.

 With the main system destroyed the Mecha Inves and Roidmudes shut down. But sadly so does Baron, the only time it follows the rules is when it gets screwed, irony's a bitch. With the main threat down we begin the wrap up. The three Roidmude leaders head back home, Kouta shakes hands with Shinnosuke then meets up with Mai so the two can go back to planet heaven. But before the two can leave the rest of the Armored Riders show up so they can give their goodbyes. Back in the Drive Pit it turns out that Lupin is still alive.

From a certain point of view.

 Tojo managed to steal a Bat Viral Core and migrated into it after he lost and was ejected from ZZZ. He makes his leave saying that he'll be back to challenge his rival once again.

 So that was Drive & Gaim Taisen. I thought it was pretty good but each had their own problems. Like I said before I have no clue how Megahex knew about the Dragon Fruits Energy Lockseed to recreate it for Mecha-Ryoma, as well as never knowing how Megahex knew about the Roidmudes. He only learned about them after he absorbed ZZZ so how did he know enough about them to recreate them if he never encountered them before? Now for Drive's segment which I thought was the weakest of the two, mostly because of the shift from Megahex to Lupin. That part basically suffers from what I like to call Divatox syndrome, where the scale of the newest treat doesn't come close to that of the previous one.

 Going from assimilating machine planet that's able to out-power and steal the powers of Gods, to a thief, see what I'm getting at here? Though thankfully Lupin was nowhere near as bad as Divatox as we saw him kicking everyone's ass but good, but that's about all there was to the guy. The biggest problem with the ending was in Kouta's characterization in his segment what little time we had with him, he still had his mature calm godly demeanor and personality form where we left him at the end of his show. But as soon as Drive showed up he started acting like he was at the beginning of his series, it's like the writer for the end of this movie only watched the first few episodes of Gaim and stuck with that characterization for Kouta. Which really doesn't make any sense given the ordeals and what he experienced during the course of that show.

As for Megahex itself, as I pointed out in the first part of this review it's basically The Borg, Anti-Spiral, Homura and Cooler all rolled into one but I think it still worked for this movie. I mean come on when one of the heroes of this movie is a literal god a threat of that size and power is essential in my opinion, any threat of a lower scale killing Kouta would have been more then a bit ridiculous. It's design was rather simple but efficient, it's a logic driven AI why would it need to look overly bombastic, sometimes the simplest design is the best.  All in all, this movie was just okay, it didn't suck it wasn't glorious but it was more then serviceable. Speaking of unfinished business I think that next time I'll finally finish my retrospective of Persona 1.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Five Nights at Freddy's is owned and created by Scott Cawthon.
Star Wars is created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox.

Tokusatsu Review: Power Rangers Jungle Fury Part 1: It isn't Overdrive, it's better by defalt (Spoilers)

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I mean that subtitle in the best possible way, after the pure unfiltered pain that was Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury is a tremendous breath of fresh air. Now don't get me wrong; like every season in the Kalish era there were some problems I had with this season. Namely the Kalishplosions and the rushed pace towards the finale. But other then that this season was far better handled then what I've seen so far from the Disney era. Granted the only season I saw in full was Dino Thunder and that was years ago, and the others I saw were either random episodes (usually the first) or from reviews, and from what I've seen so far my favorite Disney era season is still RPM but Jungle Fury is still in the top five in my book in terms of Disney season favorites.

 Granted when your competition includes Mystic Force and Overdrive that's not much to say. Now for this review I think I'll just go over the characters, my feelings about them and what I generally like and dislike about the season over all instead of an episode by episode format. Mostly for two reasons, 1 I always want people to try to go into a topic and see for themselves whether it's good or not and form their own opinions so I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, 2 because I know that my review will just get lost in the shuffle when a certain other, more well-known reviewer releases his review of this. Now for the premise; 10,000 years ago a monster named Dai-Shi lead an army of beast warriors to exterminate humanity. However a secret kung-fu clan known as the Pai-Zhua (pronounced pie shu-wa) used the powers of their own inner animal spirits to destroy the army and seal Dai-Shi in a mystic box which they kept sealed underneath their grand temple.

 Cut to 2008 where Master Mao selects three students of his to carry on guarding Dai-Shi, Lilly who has the Cheetah spirit, Theo who has the Jaguar spirit and Jarrod who has the Lion Spirit. However Jarrod also has the spirit of the jackass, so Mao chooses a rookie named Casey that stood up to Jarrod when he was abusing his authority. Jarrod, not exactly being the most rational of losers confronts Mao and the three students, accidentally releasing Dai-Shi from his prison. After Mao is critically injured trying to stop Dai-Shi from escaping Jarrod runs off. Mao's last words to his students are to go to a city called Ocean Bluff where they can find their new master.

 While the three wait for their new Master at the Jungle Karma pizza shop Jarrod becomes possessed by Dai-Shi and becomes his vessel. Dai-Shi, with his new human body returns to his temple lair where he's greeted by his loyal second-in command Camile and he sends his army of the dead, the Rinshi to terrorize humans to absorb their fear and grow stronger. The three students try to fight off the Rinshi but fail, they are however saved by the pizza shop owner RJ who reveals that he is the master that Mao sent the three to find. Once the day is saved, RJ brings the three back to the Pizza parlor and not only agrees to train them but also gives them the Solar Morphers that he created so that they can become Power Rangers. Now that the premise stuff is out of the way time for us to get started on the Characters, let's start off with our Red Ranger, Casey.

Dull Surprise!

Casey is one of the better Disney era Red Rangers. He seemed like a competent fighter, always was looking for ways to improve and never made the same mistake twice. Though he is the newest and most inexperienced member of the team that only pushed himself harder to catch up with his teammates. One of his better moments for me was near the end of the series in "Path of the Righteous" where he still thinks that he can save Jarrod after he saw Jarrod save Camile from some monsters sent to kill her. Everyone else thinks that Casey is being naive and is just acting out over not getting his masters stripes. Even the Spirit of Master Mao is telling him that Dai-Shi has completely taken over and Jarrod is a lost cause.

 But of course Casey refuses to listen and he proceeds on to Dai-Shi's temple anyway. I'm not going to give away what happens but it definitely proves why he's the leader and soul of the team. Another point in Casey's favor? He's the first Red Ranger since TJ to not get a battlizer. That definitely gets a lot of points in my book because it seems like since In Space every Red is required to have one. Granted most of the time the enemies they fight require the extra fire power and is perfectly valid there. However in the Disney Era it seems like they are mostly just using them on enemies that didn't really require the Power that a Battlizer dishes out, mostly just on lots of goons and the big bad. So it was nice to remind us that not every Red Ranger needs giant armor and what not to fight evil. Yet whatever points Casey might have gained were immediately lost when he got this stupid thing, the Strike Rider.

Moychendizing, Moychendizing, Moychendizing

Look I get that these shows are driven by toy sales and I'm perfectly cool with that, money makes the world go round after all. But if you are going to make a toy at least make it look better then this or have the character do something one of a kind impressive with it, not just use it on foot solders most of the time. That's why I can let Cole's flying motorcycle from Wild Force slide, because we see him use it to destroy Serpentera. Sure the execution was sloppy and the moychendizing was as blatant here but when you still look at it on paper, the Wild Force rider did something truly extraordinary and destroyed a powerful, iconic weapon left behind by one of the most memorable villains in the franchise and not just use it on random goons and occasionally the big bad or his generals. Another point in Cole's bike's favor? It doesn't remind me of those stupid unicycles from Venus Wars when it transforms.

The only difference is that the Strike Rider has a tiny wheel at the front when it transforms, that's it.

Sure design wise it makes sense but aesthetically, yeah no. But we're done talking about Red Rangers on Motorcycles.

RED RANGERS ON MOTORCYCLLLLLLLLLES!

........Yeah, now for us to talk about a funny comparison I was making while watching this show. Some of the characters reminded me of some of the characters on Mortal Kombat Conquest. Not everyone thankfully but the comparisons can still be made. So let's start with our blue ranger.

THEO THE GREATEST POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY CHARACTER!

Though thankfully Theo learned his lesson early on and avoided being too similar to Mr Pride Shine (he also learned it without having to blow up Noob Sabot, point Theo) At the beginning like Siro, Theo was arrogant and more then a bit of an asshole. He also had some of his own quirks like being a perfectionist, a stick in the mud and was more then a little condescending to Casey since he's the new guy and felt that he was stepping in between him and Lily. But he started to change his tune in "Can't win them all" where he gets owned by a monster and starts being a whiny moron and giving up when there's still the problem of a ancient evil trying to wipe out mankind. Thankfully RJ gets Theo back in gear by teaching the schmuck that everybody fails at some point.

So he does get back on. But every so often he needs to take another bite of humble pie and remember that his way isn't always the best way like in "Dash for the Dagger" where he lost a powerful artifact because he thought that the guy originally holding it wasn't being careful enough, even though he managed to hold on to the damn thing up until now just fine. And guess what when Theo took the artifact from the guy who was holding it, it got lost and nearly fell into Dai-Shi's hands. I mean Dai-Shi still got the thing but the point is that if Theo had just left the guy to his own methods instead of micromanaging there would have been less of a chance of the thing getting stolen. I'm more inclined to give Theo a pass because trust me, there are worse Rangers out there. He kind of strikes a balance where he isn't a Gary-Stu.

You heard me!

Nor is he an arrogant and impulsive idiot that never learns his lesson and never tries to improve himself.

Though to be honest, I would love to see a ranger do something like this. It just sounds too funny.

All I'll say for the brains of the team is that I think they originally belonged to Abby Normal. Moving on to the heart of the Jungle Fury trio, Lily.

She brings the gift of balance.

Yeah, Lily is the third part of this trifecta of power, Lily is the heart of the team and acts like a big sister to the rest of the cast. She mostly tries to keep Casey and Theo in line and she succeeds in this area. Though her kindness does tend to lean towards Naivete like in "Pushed to the Edge" where she accidentally inspires Camile (who was in disguise at the time) to release a new evil master for Dai-Shi since she was kicked out by Dai-Shi's master Carnisoar. But other then that for the most part Lily tends to be the voice of compassion, though she can kick several kinds of ass when the need arises so don't go thinking that she's all sunshine and rainbows. She also has a deep comradery with Theo, before the whole Dai-Shi situation came up the two purportedly went out for monthly lunches and often hung out with each other.

 This was also a key reason behind Theo's apprehension regarding Casey. He thought that since Lily was hanging out with Casey more he thought Casey was trying to move in. Lily assures him that nothing has changed and that the three are still friends. Now I'm not going to say anything about what happens in the end, but rest assured that it doesn't go into bad Lifetime Channel original movie territory. Now for me to take a break now that I have the main three out of the way. Next time I'll give my thoughts on the other rangers, the villains and my overall recommendation of this series.

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

Power Rangers Jungle Fury is owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Toei Company, Ltd, and Ranger Productions, Ltd.
Star Wars is Created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox.
Kamen Rider Kabuto is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. 
Venus Wars is owned by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Triangle Staff and is licensed by Discotek Media.
Yu-gi-oh! 5D's is owned by Katsumi Ono, Konami and Studio Gallop
Zoolander is owned by Village Roadshow Pictures, VH1 Films and Paramount Pictures.
Mortal Combat Conquest is owned by Threshold Entertainment, New Line Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.
Phelous and the Movies is owned by Phelan Portland and Channel Awesome
Batman (TV Series) is owned by Greenway Productions, 20th Century Fox Television and Warner Bros. Television Distribution.

Tokusatsu review Kamen Rider Taisen Part 3: The search for contenuity!

 From where we last left off we see Jin Badass riding down the coastline with Mari back to their clinic. I'm guessing that Mari is an employee, assistant or maybe a niece or granddaughter or something. Takumi, clearly as mystified by that incredible display of balls back at the dinner decided to follow the two to see what their deal is. Um, dude ever hear of just asking?

See, this guy knows not to be a creeper!

Now if I knew that some shady guy was following me and my young assistant I personally would have called the cops. Takumi doesn't even want anything from Jin he just, I don't know got bored I guess, hey writers, characters tend to have motivations behind their actions, don't have characters do things without a good reason! Otherwise it's just lazy writing! This awkward exchange is interrupted when more of Dr Jin's staff show up with a man who was injured in a drunken fight and is bleeding profusely. But is apparently strong enough to fling one of the guys holding him down like a frigging Frisbee!

Clearly an angry drunk, and an Olympian!

So after they remove the bloody glass shards out of the drunk's body, (which I won't be showing for obvious reasons) and manage to sedate him we cut to Takumi washing the blood off his hands when we get another flashback. Which I will get to when the time is right! Doc Badass thanks Takumi and tells him his full name. Keisuke Jin, who (if you've followed the links I gave in the prologue article) is the identity of Kamen Rider X. Takumi give his name to Jin, who then asks what it felt like saving a person. Takumi says that he's saved many already, which surprises Jin but notices that when Takumi said it he had a terrible expression on his face.

That expression being, Dull Surprise!

 But it's when Jin says that Takumi looks like a puppy in the rain looking for someone to take him home is when Takumi decides to leave. Jin asks what's troubling Takumi. Here is where we finally get to what I have been hinting at with this subplot. One of the biggest middle-fingers to continuity in this movie! And for those who haven't seen the reviews of Kamen Rider 555 that I posted, I'll go over this step by step.

Exhibit A The Arch Orphenoch 

This monster that Faiz is fighting? This is the Arch Orphenoch, the Orphenoch King, the leader of the monsters that Faiz was fighting against in his series and the big bad of said series.

Exhibit B, Kamen Rider Kaixa vs the Horse Orphenoch

The user of Kaixa in this scene is Masato Kusaka, the primary user of the Kaixa gear in this series. (I say that because in Faiz, the belt users change more times then most people change their underwear in a single week.) He is currently fighting the Horse Orphenoch, the second hero in Faiz.(He did turn into an anti hero at this point in the show so this can be forgiven.) His human identity, Yuji Kiba was the user of the Kaixa gear when the Orphenoch King was active. So for the Orphenoch King to be active, fighting Faiz, while the one who was using the Kaixa gear during the time the King was active to be fighting Kusaka as Kaixa is impossible! Especially when you remember that Kusaka died before the King was awakened. And to make things even better, this isn't even how Kusaka was killed in the series!

Exhibit C, Kusakas death.

Faiz wasn't even there when Kusaka died! Neither was the Horse Orphenoch! He was killed by Lucky Clover, the generals of the Orphenochs, who were working as the enforcers for the temporary leader of the Orphenochs before the King awakened.  Now, here's the big part, remember when I said that after Decade all the Heisei rider universes merged back together with the main Shōwa universe? That should have included how Kusaka prime died! And this has to be Faiz prime because all the on screen Riders that are in their civilian forms in this movie are played by their original actors, Takumi and Kusaka included! Whoever wrote this had no frigging idea what in the name of all things sacred they were doing were they? The only way that anyone could have made the continuity even worse was if this guy got involved!

No not that Mephesto!

 

This Mephesto!

Now I can't make any claims here, but I'm pretty damn Skippy that Toshiki Inoue, the guy that wrote Kamen Rider 555, he must have been pissed when he saw that scene! Now I have my own problems with Inoue's writing, which I'll cover when I talk about Jetman, but I at least know not to mess with another writers work like the writers of this movie did! But enough of that for now. Pony Boy then kills Kusaka, Kusaka asking why he had to die while Takumi has nothing to protect. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! Yeah back to the series again. Don't worry this is actually in continuity with the series. The joke is that "what he has to protect" was not only Takumis love interest, but also someone Kusaka hit, when she found out that Kusaka was acting like a manipulative, lying psychopath that was responsible for several horrible things happening to the rest of the characters because he felt like she put him in the friend zone! One of the reasons I and most people hate Kusaka is that he wasn't much of a character, more of an avatar for Inoue to use to keep certain aggravating subplots going far beyond the point where they should have ended. By the way, one of those people he manipulated? Was said girl, he made it look like Takumi was assaulting him while she wasn't looking, to not only try to kick Takumi out, but to milk sympathy from her! Enough renting about Faiz the series for now and back to Faiz the character in this piece of garbage. Because this lying, psychotic bastard died, that is why Takumi refused to put on the Faiz gear again. What a crock. He tells Jin that because a comrade of his died fighting to protect someone he loved,

he has survivors guilt. The most we even get out of my previously described diatribe about their relationship is that Takumi calls him a creep. Understatement of the entire movie! But that even that nut-job had even more of a reason to live then him. He asks Jin what he should do, he says to figure it out for himself. Sage advice there Julia! I can see how you got your own clinic, tell me, did you look at the back of a matchbook or a cereal box to find the number of the quack school you went too? I personally would have pointed Takumi to a therapist who could talk to him about his survivors guilt and his feelings of pointlessness, but there goes me and my logic again. The most we get is Jin telling him to look towards the sea if he doesn't know. Get it? He says it's because the sea's good and accepts everything. The sea can also be terrifyingly destructive and swallow anything that goes into it like a whale eating a school of plankton, I can see you weren't much of a philosophy major either. Mari then breaks up the pity party by saying that it's dinner time. Takumi hesitant because it looks hot.

Doesn't look that spicy to me.

The next day Takumi decides to take Jin's wise and sagely advice while accompanying Mari with her grocery shopping. Good thing too since Tiger-Roid shows up again and fires, with Takumi's bike transforming into Auto-Vajin to block the blast. Tiger-Roid says that he'll kill Faiz exposing the identity to Mari. Tiger-Roid says to take Mari hostage, Takumi is about to put on the Faiz gear when Jin shows up to smack around the Combat-Roids.

Do you see this brooding, emo anti heroes? This guy is smarter then you!

Having enough of this crap Takumi finally transforms into Faiz and starts fighting the Badan goons saying that he can at least protect a child's future. Remember this! Faiz then goes into his Excel form to finish off Tiger-Roid. Now for another part of why I have issues with this movie, the Showa riders are all assholes in this movie! This example is Jin fighting Faiz next after he transforms into Kamen Rider X. We get another homage to X's original transformation sequence, which again is very faithful, but less faithful is that X starts to beat Faiz like a drum, Faiz not even fighting back trying to ask why X is trying to kill him not even getting a response out of him during the fight. Respect our elders my ass! X even repeats Tsukasa's line about dying if he doesn't fight! X finally finishing the fight by using his X Kick, forcing Faiz to power down. This fight scene really encapsulates the Shōwa rider's attitude in this movie. This fight doesn't make X look strong, it makes him look like a callous bastard for fighting a guy who doesn't even try to fight back, not even giving him a reason why he should fight back other then, he a Heisei Rider and has to fight, like X was a Capulet and Faiz was a Montague.

Easy for you to say when your opponent didn't even throw a punch, Faiz you!

Takumi's response is great, "What the hell?"

You said it Henry.

We then cut back to Futo where Tsukasa meets up with Shotaro who finally caught the dog. Since the Turtle is also in it's cage Tsukasa asks where Kaito is. Shotaro says that Kaito left saying that he'd leave the rest to Tsukasa.

I know the feeling.

Tsukasa then tells Shotaro about Badan and asks for his help. Shotaro says that if he left the city that there'd be no Rider to protect it.

Yep, No Rider whatsoever!

 Or do you not count as a Rider once you get married? Tsukasa calls him out on this saying that he just doesn't want to leave Futo. Tsukasa then asks if there was a boy named Shuu who's from Futo, Shotaro says that he knows everyone in Futo, and that the Shuu that he knows is. We then cut to a lighthouse on the coast with a woman waiting there, looking at a picture. Tsukasa then appears hearing the woman saying Shuu's name. This, somehow awakens Shuu back in Zawame who remembers that he used to live in Futo and that the woman was there. Shuu starts running towards Futo with Kouta not too far behind. Tsukasa asks the woman if she is Shuu's mother. We then cut to Shuu and Kouta arriving at the house shown in Shuu's flashback. He remembers that this is his house. He walks inside.

Where we see a memorial shrine for Shuu.

Yep, it turns out that Shuu has been dead this entire time. He finally starts to get his memories back, of the last day he was alive. His mother was working that day, she said that she had to go out of the country. Shuu wasn't happy since she promised to take him to the lighthouse that day, but she couldn't get out of the assignment. She offered to take him when she gets back, but apparently this happened more then a few times before and Shuu storms off calling her a liar. In the cab to the airport she gets a picture from Shuu on her Iphone, holding up a piece of paper saying "I hate you" in large pink letters. That was the last time she had heard from Shuu. She is of course sad considering that was Shuu's last message to her. But then again kid, what exactly was she supposed to do? Not leave on the assignment and risk getting fired? Yeah sure she might be out of a job but hey at least you got to go to the frigging lighthouse. And sure she did say that she would take him once she got back, but at least she offered. She knew that Shuu wanted to go, but he could have had a little bit of patience and waited! Sure, she apparently broke those types of promises before but at least she tried! Bah humbug, call me a heartless scrooge but just consider both side here okay? Anyway apparently Shuu was just trying to tease her, yeah kid telling your Mom that you hate her just because of circumstances beyond her control is apparently "teasing" in Japan, good to know that little factoid. Apparently he meant to tell her it was a trick when she got back but then this happened.

Didn't the Carrangers teach you anything kid?

This, aside from further proof that truck drivers in Japan are the most notorious murderers in their country shows how Shuu died. Now Shuu remembers what he can back to do, find his Mom and apologize by reversing his last message to her. Of course this gets interrupted when Fifteen shows up in his human form who Shuu says is his father!

What a twist! Which we will leave on for next time.

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

Silent Hill 4: The Room is propriety of Konami Computer entertainment.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Deadfall is owned by Tristar Pictures and Christopher Coppola  
Blue Exorcist is propriety of Shueisha, Viz Media, Kazue Kato and Aniplex of America
Mephesto is propriety of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee and Sal Buscema 
Star Wars is Created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox